Gopher Genealogy by Susan LeBlanc provides information about research, lectures, published articles and book reviews, and Serendipity Moments that are the results of searching for ancestors both personally and for clients. The objective of the blog is for others to receive insight and inspiration in doing their family history research. It is an evolving method of communication and input from reviewers is welcome.

Daniel Tidd Article

Daniel Tidd - A Man of Character

After thirty years of genealogical research, what would make one ancestor stand out above the others? What would make one claim them as a favorite? For me it would be their significant impact upon the descendents that have come after them. Daniel Tidd Jr. has certainly impacted my life, as well as the lives of all his other descendents. He was a simple man, who led a life filled with adventure, with a character that stood out among his peers. When I first became interested in genealogy as a young girl, my grandmother, Zella Straw Olsen, Daniel’s granddaughter, fed that interest so that it would become a lifelong dedication to preserving the past for future generations to come. She had raised three lively sons, but had never had a daughter. As her oldest granddaughter, she delighted in having me to share her life with. We poured over the contents of her hope chest, and the family heirlooms it held, most of which she generously passed on to me. She shared with me her childhood, and her relationship with her grandfather. His influence would impact the rest of her life. Not long after his death, she came to live in Oregon with her aunt, Jennie Tidd Hosmer, his daughter. As time went on, she would live with her cousin, Annie Hosmer Sherk, and they delighted in remembering their grandfather. I will never forget the day I spent with these two fine women, as they reminisced about their childhood days. Aunt Annie had a wonderful old wooden box that held her family keepsakes, which she pulled out of the closet, sharing with us her family treasures. We enjoyed going through them that day. During that visit and in their writings, Daniel’s granddaughters not only shared their personal knowledge, but also gave to me family artifacts, which helped me to develop a keen interest in their family history. It is with much appreciation to them that I am now able to share the story of Daniel Tidd, and his family.

Life began for Daniel Tidd Jr. in Holliston, Massachusetts, on July 11, 1824. The name he carried had come down through five generations of ancestors who had lived in Massachusetts since the 1630s. Family tradition held that this name goes back even further generations, to those living in the old world. His parents Daniel Tidd Sr. and Betsey Anne Richmond were proud of their son. He joined his sister Betsey Anne, who was born two years earlier. His other three sisters were born after him, in two-year intervals, and were named Mary Townsend, Sarah Richmond and Abigail Stedman.[1] Their parents named each of the children after family members, and the last three carried the surnames of their grandparents. This family tradition influenced following generations in the naming of their children.

Daniel’s grandparents played significant roles in his life. His grandfather, Daniel Tidd, was a Revolutionary War veteran, who died in 1806.[2] Even though he never met his grandfather, his family passed on his love for this country, and the freedoms he fought for. The actual newspaper that announced his death has been passed down, and is still in the family today.[3] The family was very proud of his involvement in the Revolution. Daniel, the veteran, was 15 when he went off to war. He followed four older brothers and was followed by one younger brother into the battlefield. Only one son remained at home with his parents. Two of his brothers died in the war, and the family never forgot the sacrifice their sons had made.[4] Daniel and his brothers were all born in Lexington.[5] The family moved to Holliston after the birth of the last brother in 1768. Some of their military records list Holliston as their residence. His grandmother, Anne Stedman Tidd, was born in Holliston in 1766, and lived there most of her life. Her remarriage to Simon Chapin in 1808, and subsequent move to Maine, would truly impact his life.[6] When Simon died in 1812, and she was once again a widow, she returned to live with the family in Holliston, and remained there until her death in 1857.

Childhood in Holliston was very pleasant for Daniel and his sisters. It was written, “that his earlier years were spent attending school, with daily visits to the old swimming hole in the summer and to the ice pond in the winter. As a young lad, he was an expert swimmer and skater, and was never so happy as when he was either in or on the water.”[7]

The letters he wrote to family members are delightful to read. His penmanship was beautiful and he wrote very well. One event he recalled was, that as a young boy he walked eight miles to see the first railway train and railway ever built in the United States.[8] In his youth he had a sense of adventure, for he wanted to see the world. His father worked as a boot and shoe maker, with his son working with him to learn the trade. It was expected that he would follow in that trade for his life’s work. This was not what he wanted to do with his life, so at the age of 15, he did what many parents fear. He bundled up his belongings; left a note saying, “Gone to sea”, crawled out the window, and took off to begin his life’s adventure. As his granddaughter Anne Hosmer Sherk noted, “This was a sad blow to his parents, who wished him to remain in school. His father went after him with a horse and buggy, but reached the seaport just one hour after the ship had sailed. They did not see him again for three years.”[9]

These years were to be the adventures of his life. The best account is in a newspaper article written when he was 84 and entitled, “Has Long Passed The Allotted Span.” He was at sea on the first voyage from 1840 to 1843. The next voyage was from 1843 to 1845. He noted that he sailed from New Bedford, Massachusetts, on the whaling vessel “Endeavor”, under Captain George Tabor. They sailed through the Atlantic, to a small island called Floridis, where they purchased a supply of fresh vegetables. These commodities were important to the welfare of the sailors, who would not see land for long periods of time. They next stopped at the island of St. Helena. From here they sailed on through the Indian Ocean, and stopped next at the Isle of France, Mauritius, east of Madagascar. Then they went back to Madagascar for fresh vegetables and supplies. They were in this port for several weeks, and he related how interesting the natives were. One day when he was left alone to watch the ship, he noticed a native woman roasting ears of corn in a fire. He approached her, and was given some corn. In thanking her, he told her that if she would come aboard the ship some day he would return the compliment. He was not sure she understood what he was trying to say, but the next day he knew she did, for she appeared with eight of her children. The natives resembled the Zolis, and the sailors traded to them small articles from the ship for seashells. Daniel kept a collection of these beautiful shells, some of which our family still enjoys.[10] He also had the opportunity to buy a violin from another sailor while they were there. It cost him $8, which in those days was quite a sum. He owned, and played the violin the rest of his life, leaving it to his son when he died. A few years ago it was passed on to our family, and it is one of our treasured possessions.[11]

From here they sailed to the uninhabited Desolation Island, their whaling grounds, where they were out of sight of land for three months. The story of his life on the whaling ship is fascinating. On the second voyage they secured fifty whales, and 1,800 barrels of oil were stored away in the ship. He related how the work of processing the whales was accomplished. Once the whale was harpooned and killed, they would cut it into great chunks of solid fat, three feet thick. These were thrown onto the ship, and were “tried out”, which meant they cooked it in big vats. The largest whale on the voyage yielded 120 barrels of oil. The tongue of a whale could yield twenty barrels of oil. A whale yielding 100 barrels of oil would average 1,000 pounds of whalebone. The fat is on the whale proper on the surface, and is from ten to twelve inches thick. When the process was completed the sailors were thoroughly covered in whale oil, and their clothes were stiff from the grease. They each did their own laundry, but it was not a difficult job. To do the job, they rolled their clothes in ashes, forming soap, and then tying their clothes to a rope they would toss them into the sea and let the ocean do the work. When they drew the clothes back in they were clean, and ready to be lain in the sun to dry. The sailors used the whale oil on the ship for many purposes. The favorite use was as lard, which the ship’s cook would use to make the most delicious doughnuts. Daniel noted the only homesickness the crew experienced was when they were nearing land, and then they began to think regretfully of leaving the old ship, which had been their home for two years.[12]

Daniel continued to work as a sailor for five more years. He sailed on ships from Boston to Caracas, Venezuela a few times. He truly had a love of the sea, and reflected on the memories of his voyages throughout his life. In 1908 he still had his old sea chest with it’s tarred rope handles, and the sight of it brought back the memories of sitting on it while he ate his plum duff, while the waves rolled, if not “mountain high”, something near it.[13]He was a hard working sailor, who knew his job well, and loved the excitement of exploring the sea. In 1849 he took his final voyage on the sea, on a line coaster, in merchant shipping to Venezuela. One special family keepsake is the U.S. citizenship and seamanship paper he was issued prior to this voyage, on April 26, 1849. It lists his age 24 years, born in Holliston, Massachusetts, height five feet, seven and ½ inches, light complexion, brown hair, and grey eyes.[14]

During this time Daniel lived in Orrington, Maine when he was not sailing. This is where his grandmother Anne Stedman Tidd Chapin’s stepchildren lived. He is listed on the voters and taxpayer’s lists from 1847 to 1849, and on the 1850 list it notes that he is gone.[15] While Daniel was living there, he met a young lady that would draw him away from the sea. Sarah Jane Eldridge was born in Orrington on September 22, 1830. She was a beautiful young girl, with black eyes and hair.[16] Her parents Hezekiah Eldridge and Lucy Baker had eight children, five boys and three girls.Their family settled in Orrington in the 1790s, and had a nice farm. Daniel and Sarah were married on May 15, 1850, and they returned to Holliston to live with his family.[17] In the household at that time were his parents, his sister Abigail, and his grandmother Anne Chapin.[18]

Life for the young couple was challenging. Daniel went to work with his father as a boot and shoemaker in the large shoe factories. They eventually settled into a small home in town, and remained close to his family. In the next few years several family members died of various illnesses, but tuberculosis was the most troublesome. His sister Betsey Anne died in 1850, six weeks after giving birth to her daughter. Her husband Silas Loomis remained in Washington D.C. with their daughter Annie. Soon after his sister Mary, and her two young sons died. She had been married to David Wilson Moore.[19] Betsey Richmond Tidd, her mother, died May 19, 1852. Then a year later his sister Sarah died on April 2, 1853.[20] Only his sister Abigail would live longer than Daniel, and they were close throughout their lives.

Daniel and Sarah had their first son Elmon C. on December 20, 1852. He only lived one and a half years, dying June 19, 1853. Their second son Willis was born on October 31,1853. He died two years later on October 3, 1855. They are buried in the same place, in Central Cemetery in Holliston, a short way off from the other family members. So much death in five years was very hard on the family, but losing both their sons was a tragedy. They were blessed with the birth of three more children while they were living in Holliston, Elmon Willis born August 10, 1855, Jane Alice born December 28, 1857, and Herbert Hollis born April 6, 1860.[21] In Daniel’s obituary it notes that he went on to live in Bangor, Maine for two years and then went west to Delevan, Wisconsin in 1858, where he lived for a year before returning to New England.[22] These ventures, between the births of the children, were made in search of a different occupation. It is hard to imagine how much they moved, but they were people of few possessions, and left behind much of what they had.In 1860, with his health failing, the doctor advised him to cease work in the shoe shops and do outdoor work, otherwise he would die of tuberculosis as so many of the family already had.[23]

His sister Abigail had married Willard Mortimer Darling on February 4, 1858, and they moved to Independence, Iowa to help establish a settlement there.[24] They came back to Holliston to help her father Daniel Sr., and brother Daniel Jr., and his family move with them to Iowa. According to the 1860 census, Willard, Abigail, their daughter Mary, and her father Daniel Sr. went on to Independence.[25] The census places Daniel Jr., Sarah, and their children in Orrington, Maine, where they went to visit Sarah’s family before moving east.[26] She moved knowing she would never see her family again, and her husband was sensitive to how difficult this would be for her. Neither father, nor son, had any property listed in the census. His father, Daniel Sr. listed his occupation as a farmer, while Daniel Jr. still listed his as a boot and shoe maker. They had accumulated some wealth, but this was probably from the sale of their property prior to moving.

The family of Daniel Jr. arrived in Independence, Iowa on July 4, 1860. The trip was slow and difficult, especially with three small children. Train travel, though a blessing compared to travel in a wagon, was slow and inconvenient in those days. There was a happy celebration upon their arrival. Abigail Darling and Sarah Tidd were very fond of each other, and were happy to live near each other.[27] They settled on land in Sumner Township, Iowa, which was established in 1857. In the 1910 Atlas of Buchanan County, it shows they had 80 acres in the town, and another 20 acres along the river that was used to grow trees.[28] It was called a wood lot and they would cut the trees when they needed wood. Daniel and his father shared the property. Together they built a house and a barn, and named it Sunset Farm. They were very proud of their farm, and both lived there until their deaths. The land at the time was open prairie, with a few scattered houses and no trees, except along the river, several miles distant from their home. There were no fences and few roads. It was nothing like the civilized life they had known in New England.Those that lived in the surrounding area were a great support system for the new arrivals. Jane Tidd Hosmer would relate to her daughter how she and her brothers would play out on the prairie, and what a happy childhood they had. There were many wild flowers, which she used to pick to make bouquets. She noted that her father loved the out-of-doors, and it was from him she learned to notice the songbirds. Her daughter, Anne Hosmer Sherk remembered the many birdhouses up along the eaves of the house, where a number of families of martins lived every year. Daniel would refer to them fondly as “my martins.” In good weather he always took a long walk through the fields on Sunday afternoon. She wrote that he was a quiet, reserved man. Even though she didn’t remember him ever taking her up on his lap or playing with him, she knew he loved her dearly, and that she loved him.[29]

On August 17, 1865 another child joined the family. Lucy Cordila was a surprise to the family, and they enjoyed her immensely.[30] She was doted upon, and was very close to her mother. The Darling and the Tidd families shared many happy times together. In the Darling family there were four cousins: Mary born in January 1860, Frank born in 1862, Mortimer born in 1865 and Cora born in 1869.[31] Throughout their lives, the girls in the two families wrote frequent letters. In 1869 the family was saddened by the death of their grandfather Daniel Tidd Sr. His was the first of several deaths in the next few years. Elmon Willis Tidd died on December 17, 1872.[32] He was only 17 and this was a shock to the family. He had suffered from tuberculosis and was never very strong. In the two years before his death he kept diaries and his writings about the family are a wonderful treasure. He was a talented artist and won awards for his artwork. The next death was even more burdensome to bear. Daniel’s precious wife Sarah died on December 23, 1873.[33] She had pneumonia and had been sick only two days. They had shared joys and sorrows throughout a happy, compatible married life. He was left with three children to raise on his own, Jane 16, Herb 13 and Lucy 8. The Darling family had decided to move to Greeley, Colorado in 1870 to help establish a settlement there.[34] The families dearly missed each other, and a collection of the letters they exchanged from that time on, remain with the family. With the loss of his wife, this separation from his sister was even more keenly felt. Jane quit school, and learned to keep the house, doing the sewing and caring for her younger sister who was a shy, timid little girl.[35]

Daniel developed close bonds with his children, and they worked together to support one another. He was heavily indebt due to the costs of caring for the sick and burial of the deceased. It was many years before he was able to pay the mortgage on his farm. He was a very industrious man, and a good farmer. As he grew older, Herb did all the fieldwork on the farm, and Daniel devoted his time to the garden. He loved his garden, and no one in the neighborhood raised such fine strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and grapes as he did. He sold many pounds of them to the stores in Independence. As a family business, he and Herb made sorghum molasses every autumn. It was a popular commodity, used by all the families in Iowa. Every farmer raised an acre or more of the sugar cane. Farmers from all over the county used to bring their sugar cane to them to be processed. They used long, shallow pans, in which the cane was boiled and skimmed, and boiled some more, until it was a thick and sweet molasses. In the yard they had a big press, which was powered by a team of horses, walking round and round, to press out the juice. Herb would feed the cane into the press, and the juice, which looked like green water, was collected in huge tubs. In one year they would make about 2,000 gallons of molasses, and it would take them about six weeks. Daniel often would whittle little wooden paddles for the children to use in sampling the molasses he was cooking.[36]

Life changed for the happy family when Jane married Wesley Hosmer in 1882. She had two children, Annie born in 1882, and Eldridge born in 1885.[37] They spent a lot of time at the Tidd home with their grandfather, aunt, and uncle. Lucy took over the household responsibilities, and cared for the two men. She was a gentle, kind-hearted person, who cared deeply for her father.[38] Then in 1900 Herb married Rose Love and they lived on the farm. They never had any children of their own, but they were wonderful to their nieces and nephews. Finally Lucy felt free to establish her own life and she married Harold Hamilton Straw on December 25, 1901.[39] For Daniel this was quite a change in his life. His daughter, who had been so close to him for 36 years, now lived apart from him. Even though they lived across the road, with their own 80 acres, it would never be the same for him.[40] Lucy had a daughter, Zella who was born on July 20, 1903.[41] This was another granddaughter for him to spoil. She became even closer to him, when his other two grandchildren moved to Oregon in 1904.[42] This was a very sad parting for the father and siblings. Even though they wrote many letters, and sent pictures back and forth, Daniel would not see Jane again in this life.

Zella Straw Olsen had many pleasant memories of her grandfather Daniel Tidd. They spent many hours together on the farm, in the garden, or enjoying the out of doors. He wanted to teach her how to splice rope like sailors did, but he failed in health and the last two or three years he just sat in his rocking chair. If she climbed up high on the windmill or hay poles he would say she would be a good sailor. One fourth of July, when he was still in good health, the rest of the family went to a celebration, but thought it would tire him too much, and left him home. While they were gone he climbed up the windmill, about fifty feet, and left the hammer there to prove it. At the age of 84 it was noted that he was a well-preserved, active man. He kept up his regular round of chores, which he did as though he were forty years younger. Along with his interest in nature, he was always very much interested in the weather.[43]

Another very sad time in Daniel’s life was Lucy’s death on March 30, 1908.[44] In her death he not only lost a daughter, but it also created a distance between him and his granddaughter. The Tidd family wanted to adopt Zella and raise her, but her father did not want to give her up. In their grieving state a separation between the families was inevitable. Zella came to stay on occasion, but it was not very often. She was four at the time of her mother’s death, and when her grandfather Daniel died, she was almost ten. Eventually she moved to Oregon, to stay with his daughter Jane and her family, and she spent the rest of her life there.[45]

Daniel’s obituary is very complimentary of him. He is noted as the last survivor of those who settled in Sumner Township, and that he was a sturdy pioneer who played an active and energetic part in the initial development of the county. It grew to become one of the best counties in the state of Iowa, and it rested upon a firm foundation that could only have been built by sturdy, steady, and reliable men such as him. During the years he lived in Sumner he formed a wide acquaintance, and innumerable strong friendships, which he gained by his sterling integrity, his reliability as a man and citizen, and his uniform friendliness and interest in and for the real, manly things in life. He was a man among men, highly respected, and in his death the community lost one of its worthiest pioneers. In his life he always did his part, as he could always be found doing his share in promoting the interests of his community, and looking toward the welfare of those about him. In politics he was a staunch republican. He lived a long, useful life, and watched the township grow from a raw prairie into one of the best farming communities. Daniel lived to the age of 89, and had been in Iowa for fifty-three years. In his later years he was surrounded with all the comforts of a modern country home, looked after by his son Herbert and his wife Rose. His death was due to old age. Even though he had been in feeble health for several years, he was able to get about most of the time. Though he retired from active farm work, he continued to take a keen interest in the farm.He led a peaceful life and always welcomed his friends to Sunset Farm. Daniel passed away on February 15, 1913 and was laid to rest in Oakgrove-Oakwood cemetery in Independence, Iowa.[46] The will he left mentions his descendents, leaving those still living a small inheritance.[47] They provided for him a lovely stone monument to mark the family burial site.

Thus concludes the life story of Daniel Tidd, a man of character. He continues to influence his descendents, down to the fourth generation. How honored he would be, to be remembered as a hard working, quiet, peaceful man. Whatever type of work he was engaged in, he did it with integrity and resourcefulness.[48] The writings about his life inspire us to continue a legacy of gratitude for the wonderful country we live in. As he honored his ancestors, may we continue to honor him, and others like him who paved the way for the generations to come. Stories like his are what inspire those of us who seek out our ancestors. They encourage us to dedicate our time to preserving a genealogical history that will be treasured by those who will come after us.

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